


When the Days Have Gone (And Brought Us To The End)

by Crazythatcounts



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Post-Movie(s), Self-Discovery, Sexuality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 01:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5767003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazythatcounts/pseuds/Crazythatcounts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn isn't sure about his sexuality - but when the X-Wing crashes and he's left stranded on a planet with an old friend of Poe's that's a shining beacon of being comfortable with himself, Finn's forced to come to terms with who he is far quicker than he really wants. </p><p>Mostly Poe/Finn with implied Poe attempting to woo other characters unsuccessfully. Violence tagged just in case. Description updated due to changes in the original character.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Days Have Gone (And Brought Us To The End)

The engines started screaming, truly screaming, sound becoming real again as they crossed from the void of space into the atmosphere of the planet, smoke trailing behind them in a dark, black cloud, Poe's hands white knuckle tight on the controls as he tried to keep them from barreling downwards, and the last thing Finn remembered was the windshield shattering - the automatic stabilizer was out, the flashing red right by his head, the pressure was too great, and it couldn't hold under the change - and the passing thought, "I hope this planet has oxygen..."

 

~*~

 

They'd put a second seat in the X-Wing. Poe had requested it as a surprise - a present for one of Finn's "birthdays", as he'd called it, or the anniversary of Finn's escape from the Order. Poe had figured that, considering the Order never really celebrated Finn's real birthday and that fateful day on Jakku was the day he became "Finn" and not just a designation, he'd celebrate both days until they figured out which one Finn liked better. Having never really had a whole lot of pomp and circumstance that was about him, of course, Finn was living his first "birthday" in flabbergasted awe.

 

The seat was shoved tightly behind the pilot seat, and they'd had to make a few modifications to make it useable. The first one of note was that they had to shift Poe's seat up several inches, putting him almost too close to the controls, but Poe waved off any concern at the change with excuses - "I've been sitting on the edge of my seat for years", "a little tightness won't make me any worse, hell it might make me better!" "At least I never have to worry about reaching any controls all the way up there~" - and a charming, winning, full teeth smile.

 

Finn had a really hard time being mad at that smile.

 

In order to make it possible to shift the seat up, they also had to give over a few controls to Finn. The second chair had several automatic functions to regulate, nothing too noteworthy, and - by yet another request, explained Poe with that beaming smile - a set of guns designated explicitly for the copilot seat. They'd added four small blasters to the insides of the wings and wired them directly to Finn, giving him full control. The X-Wing still had its traditional firearms, of course, and only Poe could operate them. The control mechanism took a lot of training to master, as it was overly complicated and far too fancy for its own good. But the smaller guns were for when things got really hairy, and Poe had insisted they be trusted to Finn and Finn alone.

 

The only other modification they had to do was remove a bunch of stuff from the back of the cockpit - including a high tech fire response system. When they introduced Finn to his new seating arrangements, they handed him a bright red canister of compressed CO2 and told him that was his new fire suppressant system. The tech had the look of someone working with cave-people when he explained the simple mechanics for operating it, displeased that the automated, inert gas system had to be replaced because of space reasons. The tech had left the pair in a huff, and Poe had, of course, immediately wanted to test the new seating out.

 

The sensation of flying with Poe had probably been the best thing Finn had ever experienced in his life. Sure, he was a little squashed, his legs splayed to fit around Poe's seat, but the closeness made him feel safer, more intimate, more serene. Poe in front of him, just in touching distance, BB-8 right behind, beeping softly to him and Poe in their helmets and headsets, making Poe laugh in front of him - Finn could have sworn this was what Heaven felt like. No wonder Poe loved being a pilot.

 

They'd gotten a long, nice, relaxing joyride in before they got a request from Resistance HQ. Leia wanted them to do a quick flyby while they were out - it was perfectly okay they were in plain clothes, Finn in his brown jacket, Poe in slacks and a red shirt - they just needed to jump to a planet, run a scan, use their eyes to see if there was any First Order leftovers there, and then jump right back. Nothing big, but a good first mission for Finn the Copilot, she said, and they were all for it. Quick, non-dangerous, and a perfect job for the best Pilot in the Resistance - and his new Copilot.

 

"You ever gone into Hyperspace in a ship this small?" Poe had asked, turning his head in the seat and giving Finn that winning smile, bright right up to his eyes under the screen of the helmet, and Finn shook his head. Sure, he's jumped into Hyperspace in the _Millennium Falcon,_ but the _Falcon_ was larger and beefier than the small X-Wing. "Okay. You're gonna want to hold on tight - she's got shocks, but they're not that great." He had pressed a few buttons, hands moving over the controls like he was playing the piano, fingers passing gently and quickly and accurately, and then he gave Finn that grin and slammed his hand down on a large button and they jumped.

 

It had felt at first like his body was moving without his organs, and for a few seconds the pull was just bordering on painful, but then they stabilized and Poe was giggling in the front seat, turning to put his hands on the back of the pilot seat and grin at Finn because his _face_ was priceless. In that moment Finn realized that this wasn't just heaven for him, it was heaven for Poe too.

 

They'd jumped back out of Hyperspace with a lurch, and the planet sat before them, round and large and blue, crystal blue. The landscape was frozen underneath them, all ice, and Finn had to turn on the heaters to keep them warm in the cockpit. It was nice, scanning the white, endless landscape, watching Poe flick at buttons and dials as he read and copied the scans as asked.

 

They didn't realize they were flying into an ambush until it was far too late.

 

TI-Fighters, too many to count, had rounded the edge of the planet like the Wildebeests in the Lion King, a wave over the surface of the planet, and Poe had to maneuver wildly to simply avoid collision. The TI-Fighters could turn tighter, weave harder, and they had prior knowledge which, in the dark cold depths of deep space, was the greatest advantage. Finn had fired his blasters and taken one down just before they clipped it and he'd gotten a war weary chuckle of lucky victory, but that nice feeling was gone, and that grin was lost, and he knew better than to dwell on the small things when death was so close behind.

 

They'd lost a decent number as they exited the planet, the data getting transferred to a small drive that Poe popped out of the console and shoved in his breast pocket. A few tailed them close, the sound of the bolts non-existent out in the void of space but the color bright, terribly bright against the harsh darkness. They couldn't fight, because a few for the number they'd found were still many, and they closed quickly, and all Poe could do was dip and dive and avoid a direct hit as best he could.

 

Everything changed when they heard a mechanical, high pitched, terrified scream in their headsets as a hit jarred the cockpit forward. Finn gripped tight at his controls and grit his teeth, trying not to think of the damage, listening to Poe call more and more desperately into the headset for his friend, flicking around on controls to try and get something, _anything_ , from the droid behind them. All he received was silence, and for a long moment the void of space seemed to trap them in stillness.

 

"Change of plans, Finn." There was a steady set to Poe's jaw, a desperation to the set of his shoulders, and Finn didn't argue. "We're taking a detour. There's a planet a not too far from here, and if we can just make Hyperspace they won't be able to guess where we're going."

 

"Where _are_ we going?" Finn had asked, leaning forward, watching Poe make the proper preparations for the jump. Those hands were still so graceful, even with the added urgency to Poe's actions.

 

"I need to see an old friend about a droid." Poe had a grit teeth smile, different this time, not reaching his eyes, like he was in pain, and as he hit the button they were jarred hard, lights and beeps going off all around them. They could smell the smoke as they fled through Hyperspace, spinning wildly, and Poe dropped them early to avoid collision. They came out of Hyperspace still spinning but alone, careening wildly towards a planet that was almost all green and far too close for immediate comfort, only a few seconds from its atmosphere. Poe fought to straighten the controls and Finn held on, listening to the beeping silence and smelling the smoke in the cockpit, only allowed a moment before the sound hit and he blacked out.

 

~*~

 

The first thing he did when he came to was breath in deeply, gasping hard, happy to find that the planet had mostly oxygen as a mix of atmosphere. Of all the planets in the system, they found a breathable one, thank all kinds of fuck. He'd never been happier to breath real air before. He gasped, breathing hard for a moment like he'd been unable to, almost enjoying the ability to breath because he was sure he was dead, before climbing out of the shattered cockpit. His body felt find, though bruised, and he was bleeding from a cut on the head, but otherwise he felt uninjured. That in itself was a miracle, and he was obscenely grateful for it.

 

The body of the X-Wing was mostly intact, nose buried deep in the dirt, shattered trees in a wake behind them, but smoke was leaking from a fire in the engines. He turned his attention to that, trying to make sure the engines didn't ignite further and blow them all to bits. The canister of CO2 was fine, and he was almost glad he didn't need power to put the fire out, because they had none. The thing was easy to use, taking only a few half hearted "Come on"s to fumble the lock off so he could pull the trigger, and he slathered the engines in the foam, smothering the fire in the dense CO2. He was only mildly upset, once all that was said and done, that the canister got foam _everywhere_ , but the immediate danger was out of the way quickly and he was impressed by the "caveman technology".

 

Once he'd put the fire out, he turned his attention to the crash, climbing back over the wreckage to the cockpit. Poe wasn't in his seat, the straps broken, the windshield shattered and spread out in front of the cockpit, and Finn tried very hard not to panic. "Poe!" Finn called, looking around almost wildly, trying to get his bearings. "Poe!" All he could see besides their own wreck were trees, large and round and thick and green and after a while they all blended together. "Poe!" He called again, looking around for any sign that maybe Poe just walked off, because this time he was sure Poe wasn't in the ship, and he wouldn't leave him behind again. After a moment, he noticed the trail of glass was spread outwards, like it had shattered from an impact inside the cockpit, and he headed in the direction it pointed, calling Poe's name again and again.

 

Poe hadn't been flung very far. He lay, sprawled, at the base of a tree, blood pouring down his head. His arm was twisted back and his hips lay splayed in a strange way, and Finn rushed to Poe's form. His face, luckily, had heat, the blood flowing steadily from his head and his nose, and Finn pressed an ear to Poe's chest and found a slow, thready heartbeat. He held the man's head in his hands, getting blood smeared there, and he fought back the bile at the flashbacks that came on him suddenly, pressing his face against the warm chest to keep from seeing Jakku again, seeing the only people he could come to trust dying _again_. He couldn't, he couldn't afford to wait out the living nightmares, because this time, Poe would live, and it would be different but he had to act now to make sure of it. He'd die before he let that happen. He just had to get his body to do it with him.

 

He pushed himself up and gently set Poe's body in a straight line, shifting his hips and aligning his arm. "Sorry." He whispered, hearing the sick crack of bone grinding on bone as he repositioned Poe's arm and legs, apologizing for the pain he knew he was giving Poe. He fought off the copper smell, pressing his nose to his jacket every time he felt his stomach churn too hard, letting the smell of Poe and warmth and home guide him away from the terribleness of it all. It had been a year, sure, but the images never left him, not once, and he knew it would take much longer before he truly forgot that night on Jakku.

 

Once Poe was settled, he hurried back to the ship - they had a backpack they stuffed in there for BB-8, so they could travel with them on uneven or dangerous terrain without them hurting themselves, and he pulled that from under his seat. BB-8's chassis was fused in some places, glued to the metal of the spacecraft. "Come _on_ , droid!" Finn half snapped, trying to use a shard of wing to saw the glued bits apart. Eventually, they popped free, toppling Finn as he wasn't ready for the weight. The poor thing had suffered a direct hit, and their body was dented and charred and sparking balefully at Finn as he stuffed them gently into the backpack, closing the lid over their head with apologetic gentleness.

 

Backpack on, he returned to Poe. He'd been taught how to carry a man from a battlefield, but he'd never been taught how to carry a man with back injuries, so he had to make due. "So, how are we going to do this?" He asked himself, looking over Poe's figure and trying to assess where the worst injuries were. He eventually decided it would be best just to hoist him onto his back, because the weight wouldn't be terrible for Finn and Poe would bounce around less like that. He was gentle when he shifted Poe's bloody form over his shoulders, listening to the other's body, trying to avoid sounds like bones cracking or scraping as he moved. Poe was heavy, dead weight on Finn's shoulders, and BB-8 was heavy, straps tight on Finn's back, but together they weren't much heavier than some of his old comrades in full armor, and Finn stumbled only a bit as they started off.

 

Like he did that day a year before, he picked a direction and he started walking. Maybe this time he'd have the same kind of luck.


End file.
